H2 Thursday, July 16, 2009
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Home Front
News
CB2, the modern furniture company
owned by Crate and Barrel, is hunting for a location in the District to open a retail store, a spokeswoman for Illinois-based Crate and Barrel says. Company officials have no timeline for securing a spot. The closest CB2 store to Washington is in New York’s SoHo neighborhood. CB2 has five other locations: two in Chicago and one each in San Francisco; Berkeley, Calif.; and Los Angeles.
Kathleen Hom
What’s Happening
This Saturday, the Hansen Family Show
Home, an eco-friendly house in Falls Church that was filmed for HGTV’s “My Big Amazing Renovation,” will be open to the public. Homeowner Anjali Hansen and her family are putting the finishing touches on a 4,000-square-foot home that was built with structural insulated panels to make it energy-efficient.
The house, originally a 1940s brick Colonial, also includes geothermal heating and cooling, reclaimed bricks, recycled decorative glass and bamboo floors processed without volatile organic compounds. By adopting these design elements, Hansen says, the family is cutting its carbon footprint in half. And why open their home? “People think of green as weird and out there,” she says, “but it can be done affordably” and look stylish.
This home, part of a national Green Living Show Home Tour, is at 1011 N. Tuckahoe St., about a half-mile south of the East Falls Church Metro station. It will be open from noon to 4 p.m. Another showing is scheduled for Aug. 15. Tax-deductible donations to the Earth Day Network, an environmental group, will be accepted at the door. For more details, call 703-752-6272 or visit www.
mygreencottage.com.
Kathleen Hom
How To
BY SUSAN COLWELL
The Hansen family’s house in Falls Church.
KLMNO
HOME
Deputy Editor: Liz Seymour Art Director: Diamond James
Staff Writers: Jura Koncius
Terri Sapienza
Gardening Columnist: Adrian Higgins Editorial Assistant: Kathleen Hom TO CONTACT US
home@washpost.com Telephone: 202-334-4409
Home Section, The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW,
Washington, D.C. 20071
While attending a home show, we talked with a salesman of spray-on foam insulation. He recommended that we remove all insulation on our attic floor and use his spray-on foam to cover the underside of our roof and gables. He also said we should completely seal all vents, thus making an airtight attic space. This, he told us, would save us money on heating and cooling and make our house more energy-efficient and comfortable year-round. We always thought that attics needed ventilation to prevent moisture buildup. Wouldn’t the air up there become stagnant? What about mold?
Q
Silver Spring
A
Yes, you can spray foam insulation on the underside of a roof, remove insulation from the attic floor and close off attic vents. This turns the attic into a space that you are heating and cooling, much as if it were the top of a living room with a cathedral ceiling. You’ll be heating and cooling a larger space, so in some cases it won’t save money. But if you have heating and air conditioning ducts within the attic, the savings could be significant.
Until the 1930s, attic vents weren’t common. Then some studies done in very cold climates raised concerns about condensation that could occur when warm indoor air leaks into attics in the winter around ceiling light fixtures and
other voids. Gradually, building codes came to require vents so excess moisture could evaporate. In recent years, building scientists began to realize that the opposite situation also occurs: When an air conditioner is running in the summer, the attic vents bring in humid, warm air from outdoors. This can make the attic more damp than it would be otherwise, inviting the very mold problem the vents were intended to prevent. Several years ago, proponents of
unvented attics and insulated roof decks succeeded in getting their ideas — the same solution the salesman pitched you —written into the International Residential Code. Many communities adopt this as their building code. It now allows unventilated attics provided there is no vapor barrier between the top ceiling and the attic, and provided there is insulation that air can’t get through on the back of the roof, between the rafters. For insulating the back of a roof, spray
foam works especially well because it creates a continuous barrier, assuming it’s installed correctly. Installation is definitely a professional job, not DIY.
The uba tuba granite counters in my kitchen were installed 11 years ago. Every time I work at the counters, I have to wipe them down and polish them with a kitchen towel so they will shine. What can I do to get a better finish that will
hold up without damaging the granite and that will be safe around food?
Chevy Chase
The more shiny a surface, the more
water spots are likely to show if you let splashes dry where they fall. The spots form because minerals in the water are left behind as the moisture evaporates. It happens even on matte surfaces, but you don’t notice spots on those as much. If you want a surface that’s easier to
care for, switch to a less glossy surface. Call a stone fabricator and arrange for someone to come to your house and slightly scuff up the surface with an industrial grinder. It shouldn’t wind up looking beat-up, just a little less shiny. After the resurfacing, sprinkle water droplets on the counter. If the stone changes color, you may need to apply a penetrating sealer to protect against stains. If the water doesn’t change the stone’s color, plenty of sealer could remain in the stone, or it could be dense enough that it doesn’t need to be sealed. Penetrating sealers don’t change the sheen on a stone.
Jeanne Huber
Send your home-improvement questions to Jeanne Huber at home@ washpost.com. Please put “How To” in the subject line and tell us where you live.
blogwatch
Our picks to click this week:
K Cote de Texas (cotedetexas.blogspot.
com) offers an exhaustive review of the benefits and beauty of slipcovered furniture.
K Design Sponge (www.designsponge
online.com) provides a helpful city guide for your next visit to Richmond.
K Nick Olsen (nickolsenstyle.blogspot.
com) posts on his current favorite chain store finds, with hints on how to spruce them up if they have less-than- fabulous finishes.
Terri Sapienza
More Help From Home
Home Front: Join us
today and every
Thursday at 11 a.m. to chat with Jura Koncius and Terri Sapienza about making the most of your space. washingtonpost.com/
liveonline
KELLOGG COLLECTION PHOTOS
Sales Talk
The Kellogg Collection, a local chain that sells traditional and contemporary home furnishings, kicks off its annual clearance sale today in its Northwest Washington store.
Rugs, ottomans, dining tables and headboards are discounted 40 to 70 percent. An example: A needlepoint rug named Carlisle, regularly priced at $4,916 for 8 by 10 feet, is half off, or $2,458.
The sale is usually at the McLean store, says sales associate Bob Murphy, but the flagship store in the
District has more space to display the hundreds of discounted pieces. Items will be rolled out until the sale ends July 27. Local delivery is free. The sale is at 3424 Wisconsin Ave.
NW. For more information, call 202-363-6879 or visit www.kellogg
collection.com.
Kathleen Hom
home@washpost.com, or call 202-334-4409.
Local ‘Design Star’ Contestant Went From Bowie to Burbank
DESIGN STAR, From Page H1
ing where my next meal is coming from [while she was in foster care], and the next thing is I’m coming off a plane in Burbank” to be on “Design Star.” Last week we interviewed Morgan at a Starbucks in Clarendon, a couple of blocks from the Ethan Allen store where she works. She proudly showed off scars she got from moving furniture during the design challeng- es and reflected on her experiences.
How did you get interested in design?
It was one of those weird things where
you grow up and do it all the time, but you don’t realize there’s a job actually out there that aligns with what you enjoy doing. I would go over to my friends’ houses, I
would see their rooms, would want to hang out in their rooms and start cleaning and decorating. . . . And their parents would end up loving me. They’d say, “Can you come to my bedroom and spruce it up and do some things?” And I would end up hanging out all day doing my friend’s parents’ house. I was like 10 or 11 years old, so I’ve always done it. . . . It was real therapy; it was my outlet.
You were pre-law as an undergraduate at the University of Maryland. How did you move into interior design?
I just started looking for furniture jobs. So
I ended up at Pier 1 in Chevy Chase. . . . I ended up staying there, and I really found that I love to design floor plans, textures. I think that was my nail in the hole. It opened up doors and opportunities for me to [say], “I want to take that on.”
How would you describe your style?
When you come into my space [at home],
On sale at the Kellogg Collection in the District: a walnut rush dining chair and Carlisle rug.
it’s very bohemian-casual. It has a lot of rich colors and lots of texture. . . . It had to be comfortable, where people wouldn’t say, “Clearly a designer works here.” It had to be homey.
[My home has] a lot of world inspiration,
[and it’s] very ethnic because I like texture. The best texture comes from things all over the world, like carvings, beading.
Do you have any favorite stores?
Pier 1, obviously. . . . Anthropologie is an- other one. I actually worked for them, too; I was assistant manager for their home de- partment. Very feminine, worldly-type of feeling. But I love mom-and-pop shops, con- signment shops, thrift stores. You can’t beat it. You see one-of-a-kind pieces that there’s not a price for, and it ends up being one of the most economical investments you can make. There’s [Salvation Army] off Kenilworth
Avenue [in Hyattsville]. . . . It has so much: little vases, pottery and dishware. It’s kind of industrial around there, so people don’t know that it’s a furniture gold mine. It’s one of my favorite places.
That store goes along with your advice on HGTV.com: “Don’t let money dictate your de- sign.”
When I was finishing school, going through school, I wanted everything in my space, and what money did I have? None. So Iwas going to thrift stores, definitely driving through roads and seeing things on the side of the road and finding these . . . treasures. I was looking at sheets and making them
window treatments. In this time or any time, if you see something that may look like one thing, it can become something else. . . . I have a space in my house where I have wall- paper just suspended as a screen. It’s fun. It was scraps; it was leftover from Ethan Allen and . . . now it’s a huge element in my space.
Where do you find inspiration?
I definitely find inspiration from fashion. I’m really big on seeing what people are wearing and how an outfit can become a room. That’s actually how I work with cli- ents. I look at how they’re dressed, and I’ll ask them, “What is your favorite outfit, and if it could become a room, show me what you would do.”
V1 V2 V3 V4 M1 M2 M3 M4
The Washington Post
THE GREEN LANTERN
Nina Shen Rastogi
There Are Plenty of Fish in the Sea, but You Can Still Make Green Choices
A
few weeks ago, you offered some advice for your carnivorous readers on how to satisfy their meat cravings in a more eco-friendly fashion. But what about us pescetarians? Got any tips for fish lovers?
The Lantern’s advice for eating livestock
came down to some pretty simple recommendations: Eat less of it, and when do you do, choose poultry first, then pork, then beef or lamb. Unfortunately, there’s no easy hierarchy when it comes to fish. Part of this is due to the fact that the ocean offers such a diverse menu. The meat department at the Lantern’s local Safeway, for example, carries just five varieties of terrestrial animals: beef, chicken, turkey, pork and lamb. The much smaller seafood case, on the other hand, brims with dozens of options, from trout to halibut to shrimp to scallops. Given this abundance of edible marine life, it’s difficult to come up with many simple rules for responsible consumption. The most straightforward thing you can
do is avoid eating any species that has been consistently overfished. According to a recent report from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, 28 percent of global fish stocks were overexploited, depleted or recovering from depletion in 2007. Another 52 percent were fully exploited, meaning that catch levels had either been reached or were close to their maximum sustainable limits. (For more on
the world’s overfishing problems, watch the new documentary “The End of the Line,” billed as “An Inconvenient Truth” for the seafood industry.) To find out how your favorite fish is doing, check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s popular Seafood Watch program, which rates both wild-caught and farm-raised seafood as “best choice,” “good alternative” or “avoid.” For wild-caught fish, the program looks at stock levels but also takes fishing techniques into account, because some types of gear result in greater
The Green Lantern is a weekly environmental column from Slate. Read previous columns at www.slate.com.
damage to the marine environment or higher levels of collateral damage to nontarget species. For farmed fish, which are often raised in net-pens in the open ocean, Seafood Watch looks at the potential for pollution and disease transference to the ecosystem. (Wild-caught Alaskan salmon, canned albacore tuna and farmed rainbow trout all get high marks under this program.) In the supermarket, look for the Marine Stewardship Council’s eco-label, a blue oval with a fish and a checkmark. That certifies that products come from sustainable fisheries. One thing that Seafood Watch and the Marine Stewardship Council won’t tell you, though, is the carbon footprint associated
with your crab, tilapia or halibut steak. How a farmed fish is fed and how a wild fish is caught are generally the most important factors when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, and choosing one option over another can make a big difference. Take salmon, for example. It’s the third most popular seafood in America. According to unpublished research presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Scottish farm-raised salmon — whose diet includes relatively high amounts of fish meal — incur about 3.3 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent per pound of harvested fish, mostly because of the carbon intensity of their carnivorous diet. Norwegian salmon, on the other hand, eat a higher ratio of plants, and thus their related emissions clock in at just 1.8 pounds. (For comparison, it takes 1.4 pounds of CO2 equivalent to produce a pound of chicken in the United States.)
netting and a downright dainty 0.2 pounds for purse seining.
On the wild-caught front, the same team of international researchers found that trolling for salmon results in 1.9 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent per pound of fish. Compare that with two other forms of fishing: 0.4 pounds of CO2
At the moment, though, this kind of information remains largely invisible to consumers. Though most fishmongers will be able to tell you what part of the world your seafood comes from and whether it’s
BIGSTOCKPHOTO
For green eating, avoid imported seafood and species that have been consistently overfished.
wild or farmed, they probably won’t know what the fish ate or what kind of gear was used to catch it. For an easy way to cut your
equivalent for gill
seafood-related emissions, try to shift your diet toward farmed oysters, mussels and clams, shellfish that don’t require processed feed. (They eat plankton instead.) Many experts also recommend that you make like a European and learn to love smaller, schooling fish such as sardines, anchovies and mackerel. They’re easier to catch than big bottom-dwelling carnivores such as cod and haddock, meaning less fuel is expended
to harvest them. (Plus, since they’re lower on the food chain, they’re naturally more energy-efficient.) Generally speaking, fish with abundant populations are easier to harvest, meaning that choosing fish from well-managed stocks is likely to cut your emissions as well. Finally, avoid fish that have been flown in from far away. When it comes to seafood, transportation generally accounts for fewer emissions than feed production or fuel use by fishing boats. But fresh seafood that’s been airlifted from abroad takes an added toll on the planet.
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